Wizards: Starting with Synthetic Gems

Chapter 325 Advanced Meditation Techniques

After the witch Melanie Carlisle left with her students, Harlan Vera whispered an explanation to Locke. "Actually, the witch Melanie is a pretty good person. She's just not very good at teaching students, and she doesn't really pay attention to what those students are thinking."

"The Witch Melanie was the most steadfast advocate of war against dark wizards in the House of Secrets of Fire, and also the wizard with the purest purpose among them, simply because she felt that dark wizards had desecrated magic and defiled the truth."

Now that Locke had become a formal wizard, Harlan Vera subconsciously brought up something she usually didn't like to mention to her apprentices. "Within the White Wizarding Association, there are many pro-war wizards. They have many reasons for supporting war, such as wanting to sell weapons of war; wanting the resources of a region, but currently the prices are too high, and wanting to devalue that region through war before acquiring it..."

"Some people also believe that the dark wizards' excessive use of undead creatures, which have insufficient purchasing power, will affect the economy. Therefore, they want to force the dark wizards to buy large quantities of our goods and restrict evil necromancy..."

Harlan Vera adjusted his non-prescription glasses. "Everyone has a different opinion."

Locke nodded slightly. During the wizarding apprenticeship, everyone always thought that the White Wizarding Association hated the Black Wizards because the Black Wizards were evil, had no morals or values, or simply because there was a deep historical hatred between the two wizarding organizations.

However, after becoming a formal wizard, he discovered that all the actions of the White Wizard Association against the Black Wizards were actually driven by special economic motives.

Many of the underlying motives are primarily driven by some form of self-interest.

Take, for example, the White Wizard Association's restriction on the use of necromancy and the creation of the undead within the White Wizard community.

In the eyes of the apprentices, it was because psychic magic was dangerous and evil.

However, in Locke's current understanding, it is because the White Wizard Association believes that the large-scale use of necromancy to create undead laborers will lead to insufficient overall social consumption capacity, and the undead will need too few external resources, thus triggering an economic crisis.

Therefore, the association classifies psychic magic as an extremely evil form of magic.

In other words, the main reason why holy magic counters necromancy is that necromancy causes economic instability and violates the order among the eight virtues of wizards.

Understanding the underlying principles allowed Locke to better comprehend why divine magic countered the spells of the Necromancer school, and to calculate the relationship between the two spells using formulas.

No wonder he always made mistakes when calculating the equation for the influencing factor between the two spells during his apprenticeship in the course of all things; it turns out he misunderstood the underlying principle.

Harlan Vera sighed. "They say other wizarding mentors can't teach students, but how much better am I?"

A rare look of confusion appeared in Harun Vera's eyes. With a wave of his hand, the office door locked, and the soundproofing barrier activated. Harun Vera rarely showed his vulnerable side to his students.

“I am heartbroken about Angron,” Harlan Vera sighed. “When he came into my hands, I had high hopes for him. Even at the end, I still believed he was a promising talent.”

“I know my talent is limited, and I made the wrong choice when I was young, choosing to stay in the southeast corner region, which wasted some of my talent. So I like to help others achieve their goals. I like to discover those geniuses, and then give them resources to help them grow.”

A hint of weariness flashed in Harlan Vera's eyes. "Seeing those students achieve success outside makes me just as happy as they are."

"The academy's higher-ups now mistakenly believe that I deliberately instigated Angron's betrayal of the academy, but in fact, it has nothing to do with me. Locke, do you believe me? Until the very last moment, I was still trying to help him."

Harlan Vera sighed and said, "He's just too stubborn."

"Perhaps... I might indeed have some problems. I was too eager for quick success and I pushed him to extremes. In fact, from a very early stage, I noticed that a lot of the data in his published articles came from first-hand data that only the Black Wizard had. He had a close relationship with the Black Wizard, but at the time I didn't take it seriously and thought he could balance this delicate relationship well."

"Among the white wizards, there are quite a few who try to obtain firsthand data on the black wizards' lands. But in the end, I never expected him to do something so foolish." "I have put in just as much effort as I have into any of my students."

Harlan Vera looked at Locke with a puzzled expression. "Locke, do you think I was really wrong?"

Locke hesitated for a moment, then decided it was best not to offer too many of his own opinions on this sensitive issue.

Locke said, "To me, Mr. Harlan is a very good teacher. That's all I need to know."

Locke bowed to Harlan Vera; this was not an apprentice bowing to a formal wizard, but rather the two were now equals.

This is a student bowing to their teacher.

Harlan Vera paused for a moment, then looked at Locke, smiled wryly, nodded, and said, "That's right, it was indeed wrong of me to ask you to answer this question."

"Perhaps I should heed Mrs. Morgana's suggestion that I pay attention to the students' moral standards."

"The White Wizard Association's ethical review mechanism is indeed protecting both itself and others."

Locke seized the opportunity to ask Harlan Vera some questions. "Teacher Harlan, could you give me some advice regarding my future development after I become a formal wizard?"

Harlan Vera perked up, temporarily forgetting the heartbreak of Angron, whom he had poured so much effort and emotion into, now being tried by the Association and imprisoned in the wizarding prison. Instead, he began to enthusiastically introduce to his current outstanding graduate, Locke, the future path for wizarding apprentices after becoming full-fledged wizards.

"Thank goodness for you, Locke, you prevented me from being too disappointed. On the contrary, you filled me with pride."

Harlan Vera laughed and said, "As you can see, once a wizard becomes a first-ring wizard, he undergoes a transformation at the level of his life and is no longer a mortal."

"Your current advanced meditation technique should be at the fifth level, which corresponds to the vaporization stage."

Locke nodded slightly. "Yes, teacher."

Harlan Vera said, "The sixth level of meditation corresponds to the liquefaction stage, and the seventh level corresponds to the crystallization stage. However, there are only seven levels in the advanced meditation method. So the question is, how can a wizard who has cultivated to the seventh level of the advanced meditation method advance further and become a second-circle wizard?"

Locke nodded, a knowing look in his eyes. "So, teacher, you mean I need to acquire a more advanced meditation technique?"

Harlan Vera nodded and said, "You're very smart, that's true."

"However, that's not the most important thing. The meditation method that can be cultivated to the level of a second-circle wizard is a more profound meditation method than the advanced meditation method, called the advanced meditation method. But you need to cultivate the advanced meditation method to the seventh level before you can switch to the advanced meditation method."

"Therefore, what you need most in the short term is to finish learning the advanced meditation techniques you have. At the same time, keep an eye out for ways to obtain advanced meditation techniques."

Locke asked Harlan Vera, "Teacher Harlan, do you have any advanced meditation techniques?"

(End of this chapter)